Shannon Brown’s dunks are just as impressive as her vertical. The 24-year-old Los Angeles Lakers point guard has one of the tallest verticals in the NBA (44.5 inches)! And he’s only 6ft 2in (not 6’4”).
Of course, Brown was disappointing in this year’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest (February 2010). He didn’t even advance past the first round. But most experts agree that it was not his last appearance in this contest. In fact, Brown has been messing around for a long time:
“I was going into my freshman year at Tim Hardaway’s basketball camp. I actually got a steal, I was alone at the break, I went up and sank it. It wasn’t a clean flush, but it was good enough for where I knew I could I had been trying it in gym class in my eighth grade before summer camp, and it wasn’t working for me. Then I finally got my chance” (Shannon Brown).
Although Brown did some weightlifting in high school and college, he basically cut weight training out of his exercise routine since entering the NBA. In fact, Brown sticks mostly to push-ups and hardly trains his legs at all! So for some parts it must be in his genes: the fast twitch fibers are working at their best. But of course it’s just one side of the corner. The other side is the practice that he starts already as a child. However, there is one thing Brown has been constantly working on and still does: center strength. It’s his little secret…
When it comes to jumping, core strength is extremely important. Without core strength you cannot create the body tension that is essential in the jumping process. The core muscles allow the transfer of powerful arm and leg movements. Exercises that improve core strength are:
– Lizards
– Abdominal reinforcements
– V-squats
– Crackles
– Rear axles
– Squats
– oblique turns
– lunges
– Superman exercises
But since you probably don’t have as much athletic talent as Shannon Brown, you also need to work on your calf muscles, hamstrings, quads, and glutes.
